Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1887-06-04
Fetishes I'm the Common Schools.

/
General Francis A. Walker delivered not long
ago, before the school board OF Boston, practical
address on the nature OF ordinary instruction in
| the common schools, which should have much
| wider circulation than it has yet received. The
attack OF General Walker was directed against the
ordinary method Of teaching arithmetic; and so
successful was it that the board has reported in
| favor Of changes which will fairly revolutionize
the system OF instruction hitherto in vogue. His
practical point is that, In the infancy OF our sys
tenn OF public instruction, arithmetic was the
study by which, almost exclusively, mental disci-
pine was to be attained: 1t was not mere pro-
hciency In the use OF numbers that was
aimed at, but general training OF the mind
In ability to reason was to be reached by the
complicated and difficult exercises, without
any relation to the practical needs of the
future or the ordinary affairs of life, were intro
duced IN the textbooks, and there they have
maintained place while new studies have been
added to the curriculum, superseding arithmetic
In measure as means of mental training. The
result is that the average pupil, Carrying along
several times as many studies as the old-fGhioned
boy, is exasperated and worn out by the imposi-
ton OF exercises for which there Is now neither
time nor necessity. AS practical illustration OF
what is meant, the Boston board reported in favor
other things of the more .difhcult operations in
mensuratiOn. Of compound interest, cube root and
its applications. equation of payments, exchange,
and the metric system There is no doubt that
to great extent Gen. Walker is right. Take.
G the which he crit
lions. The boy who is confronted with a
congregation Of fractions piled on top Of
pications one after another, undergoes nothing
more than test OF logical power. He is not
helped In any possible emergency that can arise in
future life. 1t may be doubted If any pupil who
was not ready for course in Jevons ever mas
tered Understandings the theory OF compound
proportion. Certainly he never found chance to
use his skill in practice, If he conquered dIcult
subject at the cost OF weeks of effort And as for
the metric system, boys and girls puzzle for days
a MI Ia onHn ftny,
probability, they will never hear OF again: and
which, II they did, they could master, in maturer
originally bestowed. The point is important be-
cause the arithmetic fetish is far from being alone
in our educational system. 1t has the company of
educational polythesm which tires the mind and
wears out the bodies Of our children to little or no
practical purpose.
found in something which, fortunately, is Just
now a matter OF general knowledge and amuse-
ment. Everybody Is laughing over the blunders
recorded in Mark Twain's article on "English as
she is Taught" This is merely collection OF the
aosurdities noticed by practical teacher In years
OF service. But there is nothing unique about it,
This teacher was just about as other teachers and
her pupils were neither above nor below the
| average OF others. Since the appearance OF that
article other teachers have supplemented it BY
publishing other memoirs and there is not one OF
them who could not furnish every week, from
| ing and ridiculous anecdotes. These ought not
only to amuse the public. but also to point moral
q m
| brella, we see quite clearly how he is laboring
with a course in the use OF language too big FOR
his s body and brain When girl the
a ans evses els'0r s sss is d Ss
moderate knowledge OF useful facts. In one
word, The great danger in our system of public
school education is that thorOughness shall be
satisfy both requirements at the same time both
these and the health OF the pupil may go by the
a Is ey Gen Maer that our tech
who, while they understand difficult theorems
and are masters OF complicated algebraic for
mule, make mistakes in the simplest arthmetical
operations" 1t Is found, throughout Mark Twain's
Century article, that learned definitions and an
swers 70 questions In astronomy or ornithology
may be quite compatible with spelling so villain
Gus that the learner could not write decent let
ter And a similar article in Harper's Weekly
leading facts, with corresponding dates in the life
OF Julius Cesar may be altogether ignorant of the
enormity OF joining subject In the plural with
verb in the singular 1t is but few years since
the discussion over the comparative merits
of the ancient and the modern courses in
college education caused the term college
II is now In place for the same people to consider
whether there be not far more odious common
about the fact that. with all our expenditures In
the United States for common school education, an
Wre Rrammaticaiy formed m and c %%o can
spelled letter? Is 1t not curious that people who
have agonized over the mysteries OF duOdecimals
until they know the thing by rote should be dumb
| founded by requirement to perform simple opera
lions In percentage? And is 1t not Instructive
that, in connection with these mental insists
| there should break out annually, about commence
ment time. the cry that the health Of the children
| Is being broken down by over-appltcation? The
common school is the place, pre-eminently, Tor
things that are practical. 1t Is the place for
thOrOughnesS In the elements. There is a general
suspicion that an investigation of It's workings in
most OF our states and cities would show q devo-
ton to various fetishes unmatched by any COL
lege however 1t may cling to the ancient order Of
exclusive devotion to Latin, Greek and mathe-
| maticS."